Prestige Class Spotlight 11: Exalted
(art by jocarra on DeviantArt)
Deities and their worshippers come in all shapes and forms, but truly even among the priests of a deity, only the Exalted can be truly called the true exemplars of a deity’s teachings, though other clerics and oracles try.
The 5th Obedience-focused prestige class we’ve covered, and the 2nd of the traditional Deific Obedience group, today we are looking at the Exalted.
While Evangelists could belong to any class in theory, willing to tie their very ability to their deity and gain many more besides, today we are focusing on a class specifically for divine casters, offering them greater divine powers as they become avatars of their deity, or at the very least, among the most favored of their servants.
Much like other obedience prestige classes, the sheer variety of options means that each exalted is different, even if they must still be divine casters. We’ll see exactly how that is below.
Like many other prestige classes, this one lets divine casters keep developing their spellcasting as part of their training, but no other such abilities.
Like other obedience prestige classes, this one also requires they perform their daily rituals to keep gaining the benefits of the prestige class, though it isn’t as harsh as evangelist requiring daily obediences for all class abilities.
Literally marked by their deity, these priests sport a perfect replica of their deity’s holy symbol on their skin, always giving them a divine focus to cast with as long as it is openly displayed.
Being part of the upper echelons of the clergy means a somewhat better education, adding a new branch of knowledge to their class skills.
Imbued as they are with divine power, these mystics sport strong vitality, making it easier to fend off assaults on their fortitude and to stabilize when heavily injured.
Much like other prestige classes of this type, these individuals gain divine boons from their obedience feat at an accelerated rate, though obviously they only have access to the exalted path.
Their position also gives them plenty of practice being public speakers.
They also eventually gain a wider control over the divine portfolio that their deity holds sway over, gaining a third domain (or second or first depending on what divine class they previously were), gaining not only it’s ordinary abilities, but also access to a reserve of power for casting the domain spells of this granted domain.
More powerful exalted are actually transformed by their faith, gaining an otherworldly feature that reflects their deity. While this makes it difficult to disguise their true nature, they also gain protection from an alignment that the deity opposes.
They can also learn to sense one of these opposing alignments, making noticing the enemies of their faith all the easier.
The most powerful among these mystics can regularly work minor miracles once a day, either replicating the effects of high-level cleric spells, slightly lower-level spells of any discipline, Undoing harsh magic that would normally require a proper miracle spell to do, and even offering up a sacrifice of wealth to beseech their deity to perform a true miracle. However, like the miracle spell, it must be in line with the desires and philosophy of the deity in question.
As you can see, this prestige class offers not just a fast track into the obedience abilities that share a name with it, but also provide great boons for all parts of their role as priests, ministering to their followers, granting additional divine abilities, and so on. So if you want to go whole-hog into the sort of abilities associated with your deity, you have plenty of opportunity to do so. The sheer customization makes it impossible for me to give advice here, so have fun!
These priests might be shining paragons of righteousness, or they might be foul mother-of-monsters types, but what truly unifies them is that they have made the choice to become one with their deity’s teachings in an ultimate act of devotion. Of course, since such teachings can vary, there is still plenty of room for variation, and in fact these discussions on the nature of faith can be a lot of how their character is defined, be they interested in hearing different teachings or viewing other interpretations as heresy.
Unlike true ratfolk, were-rats are by nature vicious and filthy creatures. However, their beastkin brethren, the nightskulks, are not imprisoned by their curse. Indeed, Young Ilfida decided to devote herself completely to the God of Medicine, and is particularly eager to find new answers to illness and disease. Her were-rat relatives are less than enthused, and are prepared to take violent action to either return her to the fold, or destroy her as a heretic.
The church of the Clock Man is about to unveil their latest wonder, a mighty clockwork goliath to be gifted to the king as a mighty defender of the realm. However, no one realizes that among the priest-smiths working on the machine is an exalted member of the Life-Supplanter, a heretical splinter faith devoted to helping mechanical life replace that of flesh and blood, through violence if necessary.
They say that the greatest architects of the Sower of Cities become one with their greatest works after death. For most this simply means incorporating a tomb into their most famous building after their death, but for the rare few exalted priests, it can be spiritual as well. Such is the case for Kakras of Lemag, whose famous palace now holds a dim awareness of all that foes on within, all the more pity that it has become a monster-haunted fortress after the city fell.